SA Aboriginal community announces night patrols

A South Australian Aboriginal community has launched a trial of neighbourhood watch night patrols, but critics say it has taken too long to get this far.

The night patrols are already a vital part of community safety in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, but over the border in South Australia the patrols barely exist.

The patrol teams are typically made up of senior local leaders and are regarded as a crucial complement to police work.

They call police if a crime is suspected, send children and teenagers home and refer others to health or welfare agencies.

Aboriginal communities in northern South Australia are culturally similar to those in the NT, but for the past eight years no night patrols have taken place.

"There are ongoing issues of community safety, of children being out late at night, of children being at risk and this was a way to try and quieten down communities at night," said Jonathan Nicholls from the service body, Uniting Communities.

"It is a big step. It's something the community has been asking for for years and which the State Government has been slow to respond to."

Now, seven men and women from the community of Amata have volunteered to go on patrol. They rotate nights and work from 7.00pm to 11.30pm.

Better chance of success

It is the first such patrol in the APY Lands for eight years. Back then the concept was trialled and failed dismally.

At the time, the only police presence was based outside the region because there were no houses for local officers to live in.

Mr Nicholls says there are now four police officers living and working in Amata, so this trial has much more chance of working.

"Now when you trial a night patrol, people who participate can feel much more confident that if a situation gets messy there are some police officers who can come in and intervene," he said.

Night patrols were recommended in an independent inquiry into child sex abuse in the region four years ago. But since then, the South Australian Government had not done anything to enact patrols.

Instead, the new trial came through local residents asking the Federal Government's Co-ordinator General for Remote Indigenous Services, Brian Gleeson.

Mr Gleeson is a former senior UN diplomat with a brief to better organise government services in some remote areas. He says night patrols are necessary because there are fewer other local services.

"You cannot have a top down approach and assume that this is going to be accepted by everybody," he said.

"For example the police you know will operate 24 hours a day. In places like Amata they do not operate 24 hours a day. They operate on a standard roster system so therefore you have to have a supplemented system to facilitate if you like that extra set of services."

In many Aboriginal areas, police work is also complemented by Indigenous liaison officers.

There are two such roles in Amata, but a freedom of information statement last November revealed they had been unfilled for two and five years respectively.

Both positions are still vacant, but South Australian police say the job is done by those in other communities as needed.

The seven night patrollers in Amata have been trained by a local Senior Constable, Ben O'Leary. He says the patrols are already proven handy as extra eyes and ears.

"They do act as deterring crime, especially during the school holidays where you know children are out and about probably more later at night," he said.

"We haven't had an issue where they haven't reported crime to us. They take pride in actually being able to tell us about what’s happening within the community, which is definitely a good thing for us."